Trap-door for railway-cars



(No'Model.)

J. W. SNYDER 8v J. C.1V[0MAHON.

TRAP DOOR FOB. RAILWAY'GARS.

Patented Mar. 29.1892.

tra Smarts nrnNr JOHN WV. SNYDER AND JOSIAH O. MCMAIAION, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

TRAP-DOOR FOR RA|LWAY=CARS.

SPECFCATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 472,003, dated March 29, 1892.

Application tiled September 28, 1891. Serial No.407,062. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that we, JOHN W. SNYDER and J OSIA-H O. MCMAHON, citizens of the United States, residing at Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented 'certain new and useful Improvements in Trap-Doors for Railway-Cars; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

Our invention relates to an improvement in sliding trap-doors for railway-cars; and it consists in certain details of construction and combination of parts, as will be fully described hereinafter.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis an inverted plan view of the bottom of an ordinary railway-car having our improved sliding trap-doors arranged in position thereon. Fig. 2 is a sectional end elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detailed side elevation of one of the end guides and the bar upon which-the same slides. Fig. 4 is an inverted plan view of the same.

To put our invention into practice with an ordinary railway-car l, having two longitudinal openings 3 arranged in the floor of the same, we secure to the beams 9 two timbers S, to the inner sides of which are attached two guide-bars ll,which are held in position by bolts l2. Operating on these guide-bars ll are two sliding doors 2, capable of being moved toward or away from each other` for the purpose of covering or uncovering the openings 3, formed in the iioor of the car l. Attached to each end of these doors 2 are two grooved plates 10, (see Figs. 3 and 4,) which serve to guide the said doors evenly when moving the saine. Attached to the frame of the car by means of bearings 7 and at the middle of the length of the doors 2 is a shaft 5, having square ends for the purpose of attaching a crank 6 thereto. This shaft 5 is attached to the doors 2 by means of bearings 7, and the said shaft is provided with a right and left hand screw-thread, which operates in threads formed in the two outer bearings 7. These two last-mentioned bearings 7 are firmly attached in position by means of bolts extending through the doors 2 vertically and horizontally. To operate these doors, it is only necessary to place the crank 6 in position at either end of the threaded shaft 5 and turn the same in the proper direction, which will open or close the doors, as desired.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent. is-

The herein-described trap-doors for railwaycars, consisting of the doors 2, arranged to cover openings formed in the bottom of the car, the cross-beams 8, having attached thereto the guide-bars ll,the grooved guide-plates lO, attached to each angle of the doors, the shaft 5, having a right and left hand thread, secured in bearings to the frame of the car and to the doors in a manner that when the In presence of- JOHN S. KENNEDY, I. A. CARLINE. 

